


Not-So-Silent Night

by Nunonabun



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: Gambling, Gen, Tipsy Nuns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 16:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12844917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nunonabun/pseuds/Nunonabun
Summary: In the 2013 Christmas Special, Trixie mentions that the nuns were gambling and drinking whiskey sours. I assumed this was a yearly tradition, so here's little imagining of said event the year before that CS.





	Not-So-Silent Night

**Author's Note:**

> To remind everyone, it’s based on the following scene (but set in 1957):
> 
> Chummy: “You blasphemous lot. The nuns will have us all thrown out onto the street!”
> 
> Trixie “I doubt it! We just sidled past the parlour with these innocuous little bottles of Babycham under our cardis, and they’re all drinking whiskey sours and playing poker.”
> 
> Cynthia: “They’re getting themselves ‘in the mood’ for carol singing.”

“Five of a kind!” Announced Sister Monica Joan happily, laying out her aces and joker on the table in front of the others.

Sister Evangelina threw her cards down angrily. “We’re not playing with wild cards!”

A look of sorrowful confusion set itself in the lines of Sister Monica Joan’s face, its sincerity only marred by a knowing, somewhat mischievous air that she seemed unable to hide completely. “If it is their nature to be wild, how then should they be constrained by rules?”

Sister Julienne folded her hand in congenial defeat. “I certainly cannot best that, Sister. However,” she continued with a pointed look that had been honed over the years to elicit obedience in others, “I think that perhaps we ought to play with our sleeves up moving forward.”

Sister Monica Joan’s donned an air of grave offence. “Surely you do not suggest that I am being dishonest?”

“I’m sure Sister Julienne is not suggesting any such thing, Sister Monica Joan. It is merely a preventative measure.” Sister Bernadette reassured her, refilling up the elderly Sister’s tumbler with a healthy amount of the whiskey her friend Aileen sent her every year from their hometown.

Continuing her efforts to keep the peace, Sister Bernadette also topped up Sister Evangelina’s whiskey sour. Sister Julienne caught her intent and gave her a slight smile of approval.

Sister Evangelina noticed the look between her two Sisters and pulled her glass away. “Oh no you don’t. I won’t have you getting us all sloshed like last year!”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The bespectacled nun commented primly.

Sister Evangelina gathered the cards to shuffle once more as Sister Monica Joan snuck one of the biscuits they’d been using as chips into her mouth.

“Mmmpph. And I’m sure you don’t know how you ended up with all the spice biscuits last year either!” noted Sister Evangelina, deftly bridging the cards.

“Surely if I can hold my drink, you can.” Sister Bernadette remarked, changing her tack and widening her eyes in mock innocence.

Sister Julienne hid a smile, taking the cards from a distracted Sister Evangelina to deal them another round.

Sister Evangelina wasn’t fooled, as she might have been when she first met her young Sister. She pinned Sister Bernadette with her gaze and shook a finger at her. “You’re a wily bunch, you Scots.”

Deprived of her methods of winning all the baked goods, Sister Monica Joan studied her cards dejectedly. “This devil’s brew has robbed me of my wits.”

“I shall take that as an agreement.” The ill-concealed joy on Sister Evangelina’s face indicated luck had favoured her this round. “Oh look, you’ve gotten us to agree on something. It’s a Christmas miracle!”

Sister Bernadette smiled good-naturedly, folded her crummy hand, and took a sip of her own drink.

Not a muscle twitched in Sister Julienne’s face as she raised Sister Evangelina’s bid and watched Sister Monica Joan sweep another biscuit towards herself as she folded. Sister Evangelina eagerly went all-in, and perhaps it was the alcohol, but the Sister-In-Charge couldn’t help cheekily commenting, “you should perhaps have remembered, Sister, that greed is a sin,” before trouncing her old friend.

With the loud scrape of a chair, the evening ended as it did every year. “Oh, sod this game! We should be off to carols in any case.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :) If you have time, drop me a comment below! I love to hear from readers.


End file.
